This invention relates generally to an umbrella carrier which makes possible the transporting of a wet umbrella outside of a vehicle and more particularly to at least one umbrella carrier arm that secures an umbrella and that attaches to a mounting pole coupled with at least one vehicle window support clip portion having a flat support surface adapted to engage the exterior surface of a vehicle window and a clip adapted to engage the interior surface of a vehicle window.
There are a vast number of patents related to holding umbrellas and even wet umbrellas inside of a vehicle. Several of these patents disclose specially designed compartments in various places within a vehicle. For example, Leaf, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,720, issued on May 1, 1984, describes an elongated tube with one closed end and one open end provided in an automobile dashboard for holding a collapsible umbrella and for passing water on the umbrella safely to a drain. Fujiki, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,920, issued on Feb. 28, 1989, describes a cylindrical casing disposed between the inner and outer panels of a rear fender of a vehicle. In this patent, the wet umbrella does not have to be brought into the vehicle because the specially designed compartment is between the inner wall of the vehicle and the outer wall of the vehicle. These specially designed compartments help solve the problem of what to do with a wet umbrella, but only for people who purchase vehicles so equipped.
While most related patents provide for holding a wet umbrella inside a vehicle compartment, there are a few that provide for storing an umbrella in some type of container or protecting element attachable to the exterior of a vehicle. For example, Sirota, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,849, issued on Jan. 7, 1986, describes a motor driven umbrella unit comprising a housing mountable on a car and having an inner hollow with motors and a transmission for opening and closing a protecting element of the umbrella and another drive for turning the umbrella into the housing and out of the housing. In this invention the motor driven umbrella is stored inside of a housing with a protecting element. Cui, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,368, issued on Jun. 25, 1996, describes an umbrella unit attachable to a vehicle comprising an umbrella, a means for deploying and retracting said umbrella, a container portion having an exterior and at least one door, said at least one door of said container portion opening when a control strip deploys said umbrella and said at least one door closing when said control strip retracts said umbrella. While these inventions provide the convenience of storing a wet umbrella outside of a vehicle, they also include housings or containers, motor drives, transmissions, and/or other means for deploying and retracting an umbrella. These particular inventions are quite bulky, appear to be expensive, and are not quickly and easily mountable on a vehicle, when compared to the present invention.
The present invention makes possible the convenient transporting of a wet umbrella outside of a vehicle without a bulky expensive housing. Conventional umbrellas when closed and pointed into the wind provide very little wind resistance and therefore do not require expensive housings or containers for protection. In the present invention, an umbrella is simply strapped, clipped, or otherwise secured to at least one umbrella carrier arm attached to a mounting pole coupled with a vehicle window support clip or some other vehicle mounting device. In a preferred embodiment of the invention for a conventional umbrella, two umbrella carrier units are used for securing one umbrella. One umbrella carrier arm secures an umbrella handle and a second umbrella carrier arm secures the fabric canopy of the umbrella.